Living marriage victoriously.

I know that we often tell people this, but our courtship years and the early years of our marriage were the best years of my life. I loved getting to know you.I loved spending time with you. I loved our Friday night’s coffee and cake, followed by a movie. I love our weekend’s away – out trip to Hogsback where we looked for snow, and landed up having one of the warmest weekends. So warm, that we were wearing shorts during the day… go figure, we didn’t see any snow that weekend.

Or the time we went camping at Storm’s River and left all our luggage at home. My dad had to meet us half way so we at least had clothes for the weekend. I still recall the photo of you eating a chip… I can’t recall if it was that weekend or another camping weekend at Storm’s River (I seem to think it was a different weekend, because it seemed colder in this second story), but making pork sausage on the braai and eating them in breadrolls, while the waves crashed on the rocks right where we were braai’ing. And then trying to take a can to boil water when there was a whole camping kitchen just a stone’s throw from where we were – how we laughed at that the next day.

Making love in the forest.

Or driving to Cape Town and stopping in Barrydale to have the most delicious lamb chops (actually, I think you had a stew or a lamb curry), but boy, was that delicious.

Partying late, you driving me home – you having to get up early for work, and me sleeping until lunchtime, at which point either one of us would phone the other. Usually you phoning me just to find out if I was awake…

Going clubbing with some spear fishing friends of yours, and you coming to stand between me and another girl in the group who was known for knocking people over (not sure why, guess she couldn’t handle her alcohol or maybe she just didn’t like people…).

And the first couple of years before becoming parents – watching TV late, sleeping in late, taking the dogs for a walk… oh, remember the time when we discovered our German Shepherd was deaf? Oh, man, I miss that dog. He was super special and so amazing.

And sitting on your little balcony and having braai’s – overlooking the whole bay area with all its bright lights, and ocean in the distance. Sleeping in one Saturday morning and having the owner come to check on the place and hearing you tell him, “My girlfriend’s sleeping in the bedroom” so he didn’t just walk in.

Or that time we caught a flight to Cape Town, only to be given two bottles of wine – we had been married a few years by then, but the staff clearly thought we were still on honeymoon. And it was good wine. That was awesome.

And our Kontiki tour overseas was amazing – just recalling walking under the Eiffel Tower and having a gypsy push flowers into my chest, and you pulling me away. Or running in the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. Or sneaking into the Vatican and working against the queues of people, but seeing the whole area. I still want to take you to Israel AND have us put a foot on each continent.

I loved, loved, loved getting to know you and building our life together – I remember thinking that I didn’t know that the honeymoon years was meant to go on for so long. And for us, they did. I truly consider us blessed to have had the opportunity of building such a solid foundation for our marriage and our relationship, and I am grateful to have done it with such an awesome man.

I know that becoming parents was a huge adjustment for us – but I loved getting to know, I love being married to you, and underneath all the tiredness, fear and anxiety is this solid foundation we built in our early years. And that is God’s give to us. I am so grateful…